I'm currently in the process of moving out of Windridge Townhomes. I've lived here for the past year. The place itself was fine, but I decided to move to a location closer to my job to cut down on my commuting time.

I'll start by saying that I'm not a hard guy to please, but I'm not easily impressed either. That pretty much sums up my experience with Windridge Townhomes...

Positives:
This is a great place to live if you have a family. I don't have any kids, but I am married. If my wife and I did have kids, we would have no problems with raising kids here. This place is very safe in my opinion and I once never saw a police officer or sheriff's deputy once while living here (can't say that about every place I've lived).

A lot of people complain about the office staff, but I thought that the office manager (Liz) was one of the most peppy and nicest people I ever met. I don't know if it was just a facade, but she was literally always smiling and in a good mood whenever I had to stop by the office. I didn't meet a lot of the maintenance staff, but the few that I passed as I was leaving for work always acknowledged me when I waved or had a casual conversation with me when I saw them at the office.

The community is very attractive and definitely has curb appeal. I didn't have any guests during my time here (not from the area, don't know anyone here), but if I did at least I wouldn't be ashamed of them seeing where I lived (once again, this wasn't always the case at some of my former addresses LOL).

This was the first place I've rented where I didn't hear my neighbors. It was lovely. That's one of the great benefits of living in a townhouse. There's no one above you or below you so noise disturbances aren't common. I also have a home theater system which I like to play often and never once got a complaint from a neighbor for it being too loud (once again LOL, wasn't the case at previous residences).

As far as value goes, I will say you get a lot of space for what you pay. I stayed in a two bedroom, 2.5 bath townhouse with garage and fireplace with plenty of space for my wife and me in a quiet setting for all under $1,000. The place I'm moving to doesn't have a garage, only has 1.5 baths, has smaller bedrooms and less space overall, and it will cost $60 more per month (but I'm willing to pay that for a shorter commute.) This place definitely fits within my sq ft per dollar rule (I won't rent from a place that costs more than $1 per square foot.)

The place is more diverse now than it was when I first moved here last summer. I'm in the military, so I always appreciate being in diverse environments since that's what I'm used to. When my wife and I first moved here, we were like one of only two black families (that we noticed) living here at the time. Now there are more minority families living here which is great (don't worry racists, we aren't the majority here). I only bring race up because for a lot of minority families, there's always a fine line of living somewhere where you don't feel out of place and living somewhere where you see many faces that look like you but aren't the safest places either.

I loved the convenience of paying my rent online. This property is partnered with rentpayment.com, so my rent was automatically debited each month from my checking account (there is a $2 per month surcharge by going this route). I just hate having to write checks each month and dropping them off at the office. Unlike most places that give you until the 5th before rent is counted late, this place only gives you until the 2nd. After that you incur a late fee. My rent was paid on the 1st every single month because of the online convenience (and thanks to the government's pay schedule of every 1st and 15th LOL).

Negatives:

The biggest negative experience in my opinion was the insulation. As some previous reviewers have touched on, it can be a painful winter. The downstairs doesn't hold heat too well so expect to pay $300 electric bills in the winter. You could have the heat on full blast, but the downstairs would still be freezing cold while the upstairs was too hot. There was never a happy medium temperature wise during the winter. The most I ever had to spend on an electric bill prior to living here was $75, so you can imagine my surprised when it said $325 for example. They do have a money back program here which works to compensate you for high energy bills, but it's sad to say that I was only reimburse once after showing them at least 4 bills this past winter. I didn't really press the issue about getting reimbursed for the other 3 however.

The way that parking works is that you get your garage of course, and the space directly in front of your garage is guaranteed. That's all good if you have one vehicle, but my wife and I had two vehicles and different work schedules, so it was an inconvenience somedays having to move my car so she could leave and vice versa. This wasn't a problem for most days since there was a spot in front of our house that she or I could park, but those spots aren't protected and occasionally someone else would park there. If they would expand it so that no one could be allowed to park directly in front of your house, that would solve that problem.

Like I mentioned previously, I don't have kids, but I was annoyed towards the end of my stay here with the all of the kids riding their bicycles all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love kids; I have a 9 year old little sister back home in VA. But it creates a safety issue when you have kids riding their bikes carelessly around while traffic is constantly coming and going. I've had to slam on brakes on a few occasions to avoid making the news. The driveways are narrow as is, but having to keep your foot on the brake for fear of a child darting out on his or her bicycle was very annoying. It's nobody's fault in particular. There isn't very much room out here for them to ride their bicycles, but I wish more caution was taken in them doing so.

Conclusion:

Overall, my living experience here was positive. Had it not been for my wife insisting that we move, I probably would have renewed my lease. But husbands know that it's important for the wives to get what they want so we can get what we want (if you catch my drift). I would definitely recommend this for someone looking for a quiet, safe community that's reasonably priced and attractive as well. If they could somehow fixed the small issues that I had and this place would easily be a 5 out of 5.

P.S.

I forgot to add some things....If you are currently serving in the military or are a military retiree, they do offer what's called the Stars and Stripes program. It basically waives your application fee and security deposit, and I believe we got half off the first month's rent (I can't quite remember).

Also, if you're into decorating, you don't have to get permission to paint or hang pictures here (or a flat panel LCD tv). They just ask that you return everything to the original look upon moving out. My wife and I didn't decorate (I didn't want to go to through the trouble of having to paint everything back to the default color), but I do recommend decorating because the place looks pretty boring on the inside with just the white walls and no fancy fixtures LOL. Just passing by some of the apartments (driving through while their blinds were up), some people really had theirs looking really nice.

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